The Gary Robb saga and the disaster of the Amaranta Valley Project at Arapkoy continues.

Mr Robb had been due to stand trial for drugs offences after a £10,000 haul of Class-A substances was found at the Stockton nightclub, but he fled the UK before his court hearing amd resurfaced in North Cyprus

In North Cyprus he formed Aga Developments Ltd in 2001, and started developing land and property in Arapkoy. Most of his customers were British buyers who were looking for retirement homes in the sun.

In 2009, Mr Robb was extradited from North Cyprus to the United Kingdom, where he was arrested, convicted and sentenced to five years in prison.

After completing his custodial sentence he was extradited to the Greek Republic of Cyprus and was sentenced by authorities there to 11 months in prison for illegal use of the land for his Amaranta Valley development. This would appear to have been a political show trial by the Greek Cypriot administration as Mr Robb apparently acquired the land in a lawful agreement according to North Cyprus sources.

While he was in North Cyprus, Mr Robb is reported to have attempted to transfer a large sum of money to Thailand. He stated that this was in order to finance a business venture. The funds appear to have been channeled via the UK and were seized by the UK National Crime Agency. A sum of around £1.5m has been mentioned.

A civil recovery action against Gary Robb by aggrieved British purchasers of Amaranta Valley properties, has led to around £1.6m of assets being frozen and £1.3m shared among 57 of the victims of the troubled Amaranta Valley project. This distribution of assets averages out at around £28,000 for each purchaser. For some purchasers, this may be a full refund of their deposits and stage payments. However, it is alleged that some purchasers paid up to £100,000.

.Donald Toon, director of economic crime command for the National Crime Agency who worked on the case, said: “This case is the first time that this legislation has been used to both disrupt serious criminal activity, and enable victims to reclaim funds.

“Achieving today's result has taken a determined effort over many years"

“The NCA will be patient and persistent, and will continue to use every tool at its disposal to disrupt criminals like Robb and deprive them of the assets they acquire through crime "

The funds were awarded to victims today at the Royal Courts of Justice. This is the first time the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 has been used in this way.

Chief Chancery Master Marsh, of the High Court said: “The NCA has played an important and helpful role in this litigation and has greatly assisted the court throughout. Furthermore, the approach adopted by the NCA of ‘helpful neutrality' has been of great benefit to the claimants and has saved them a considerable amount of expense.”

COMMENT

Despite this welcome windfall to the 57 British purchasers at Amaranta Valley, it is unclear whether the unfinished properties will ever be completed. In March 2016, there was a news story in several North Cyprus newspapers that the TRNC administration would offer loans or mortgages to property buyers in order to complete unfinished properties. It was reported that there were some 6,000 ‘abandoned' properties in North Cyprus. The use of the English term ‘abandoned' is unfortunate as this adjective is used to refer to properties vacated by Greek Cypriots in 1974. The 6,000 properties in question are new builds that have not been completed for a variety of reasons, despite the fact that many have a Contract of Sale in favour of an overseas buyer and the buyer has made some stage payments.

Although this initiative will assist the TRNC construction industry, which has been languishing since the global recession of 2009, it should be welcome as an attempt by the TRNC administration to resolve the problem of both Amaranta Valley and several other property sites that have been a blot on the landscape for many years

There are many contradictory reports concerning Mr Gary Robb, and we apologise for any inaccuracies.